NOTARIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE CITY CLERK OPINION 86-4

Home Browse Search

OPINION N0. 86- 4 September 24, 1986 Page two -------------------------------------------------------------------- Further, acknowledgment of documents of instruments must meet the requirements under Section 1185 of the California Civil Code which states: "(a) The acknowledgment of an instrument must not be taken unless the officer taking it personally knows, or has satisfactory evidence that the person making the acknowledgment is, the individual who is described in and who executed the instrument. (b) For purposes of this article, 'personally knows' means having an acquaintance, derived from association with the individual in relation to other people and based upon a chain of circumstances sur- rounding the individual, which establishes the in- dividual's identity with at least reasonable certainty. (c) For the purposes of this section 'satisfac- tory evidence' means the absence of any information, evidence, or other circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the person making the acknowledgment is not the individual he or she claims to be and any one of the following: (1) The oath or affirmation of a credible witness personally known to the officer that the person making the acknowledgment is personally known to the witness. (2) Reasonable reliance on the presentation to the officer of any one of the following, if the docu- ment is current or has been issued within five years: (A) An identification card or driver's license issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. (B) A passport issued by the Department of State of the United States. (3) Reasonable reliance on the presentation of any one of the following, if the document is current or has been issued within five years and contains a photograph and description of the person named on it, is signed by the person, bears a serial or other iden- tifying number, and, in the event that the document is a passport, has been stamped by the United States Im- migration and Naturalization Service: (A) A passport issued by a foreign gov- ernment. (B) A driver's license issued by a state other than California or by a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue drivers' licenses. (C) An identification card issued by a state other than California.